The Shack: The Guardians

He'd been brought in because he'd worked for Danni's boss at one point. She needed cover in the club. He hid her batons in the women's restroom inside one of the towel dispensers. She'd walk right in through the metal detectors and go straight to the bathroom. He also kept the loading dock cameras and alarm offline to make sure she always had a way in or out if she needed it.

Mom threatened to fly out, but I talked her out of it with a promise to come out and visit after I got out of the hospital.

Ron was actually worse off than I was, skull fractures and a collapsed lung were likely to keep him in the hospital for months.

My last morning in the hospital I woke up to an oddly familiar face.

A slender, older black woman with oddly pale green eyes was sitting in a visitor chair on the side of the bed. I recognized the eyes.

"Good morning, Derek."

"You're Lieutenant Markham."

"I retired as Commissioner a few years ago. And the name is Belle Anderson now. Has been for many years."

"Your picture was on the wall down at the precinct in the Dog Run. You're a legend down there."

"They still remember me after all these years."

"Hard to forget. The Dog Run is still a shithole, but I heard it was a hundred times worse before you cleaned it up."

"I don't know about a 'hundred times worse.' But I do like to think I made some improvements."

The name ''Belle Markham" was still spoken in hushed, reverent tones at the precinct. Sometimes as a prayer when days turned bad. Rumor had it she'd dropped the rules and laid waste to the gangs that had owned the Dog Run with sword and fire. Some of the older perps literally cringed when they saw her picture on the wall.

"From what I've heard, you made a huge impression."

"Hmmm. You've been too polite to ask why I'm here. I apparently owe you a favor."

"How so?"

"They lured me out of retirement to head up the State OSI after the last Director was arrested for federal corruption charges. When you took a bullet for Special Agent Wolfe, you took one for me. So I owe you. I take things like that very seriously."

"The only thing I want is Danni."

"That's really not up to me. A bit beyond my authority."

"Just let her know she can talk to me, so I can figure out what's real, and what's not."

"If it helps, I've never seen her date anyone seriously at all until now. I recruited her out of an intern program, the usual bunch of useless Criminal Justice majors we see every summer. Managed to get her on part time until she finishes her Masters."

"I thought her degree was in Dance."

"She had a double major. It was one of the reasons those idiots sent her into the clubs. Everyone knows cops can't dance. Makes a damn good cover."

"Fooled the hell out of me."

She peeled a card out of her handbag and wrote a number on it. "Here's the phone number for the operations officer. Show up next week and he'll have someone take you to see Danni at work. Danni can answer your questions there. Anything else?"

"Not unless you're willing to tell me if the rumors are true."

"What rumors?"

"How you did it, cleaned up the Dog Run. How you broke the gangs. Rumor is you killed Jack Church and The Chinaman."

She sighed, but she smiled slightly. "It's been a long time Derek. I'm getting old, I just can't rightly remember just what happened to them." She got up. "I just did my damn job."

She started to walk out, then stopped at the door without looking back. "It's been nice meeting you Derek. I hope everything works out for you and Danni."

###

It was a Monday when Nick drove me back from the hospital; Danni had been caught up in the paperwork and meetings surrounding the arrest of Anthony Montange. I expected to have a lot of class work to catch up on, but it was surprisingly simple. Which actually made things worse, since I didn't have anything to distract me from worrying about how much of whatever Danni and I had was real, how much wasn't. Trying to figure out how much of "us" was actually a cover story.

I must have looked at the card a hundred times, but by Wednesday, I'd made up my mind. If I left it to Danni, her determination to avoid relationships might override everything, real or not. She just wouldn't show up on Friday night, she'd drop me along with her cover.

If even half of what we had was real, I knew I needed to hold on with both hands.

I made one expensive stop before heading over to her office.

When my escort arrived at the front guard desk of Danni's building, I grimaced. Cassie.

"Derek." She took a visitor badge from the guard, as she checked my driver's license against the visitor log. "Last name Keawe."

"I'd think you'd know who I am by now, Cassie."

She shrugged. "Procedure, you know how it is."

We rode the elevator in uncomfortable silence, then she led me down a hall to a dull cookie cutter conference room.

"You'll need to wait here, I'll go get Danni."

It took her almost ten minutes to drag Danni into the conference room. From the look of things, she hadn't come entirely willingly.

She was wearing a basic black government-standard suit with skirt, and an expression that screamed discomfort.

"Derek, I could have come over if you really needed to talk."

"We need to talk now. And we need to do it on your ground."

"Cassie just gave me the message from Director Anderson."

"I just want to know where we really stand."

Danni looked down at the carpet for a long few seconds. "I screwed up. This whole thing was supposed to last a couple weeks at most."

"Us?"

"No, the whole operation. The idea was to seed the clubs with 'spotters' who could sort get a grounds eye view, maybe get a sense of how the narcotics were flowing. But the first week netted three pretty significant busts. So they decided to keep us in. And because it was just supposed to be a look-see in the first place, we hadn't put any long term covers into place. I really do teach some classes at the dance studio, so that seemed like the best cover I could build on the fly."

"So that's why you were using your real name?"

She nodded with a grimace. "All the door guards had seen our real licenses. We were doing real damage to the drug distribution networks, taking out mid-level dealers instead of just pushers. We couldn't just turn it off. Anderson was pissed when she found out we were working without cover identities, but everyone was afraid if we pulled the spotters out all at once and replaced them, it'd be too noticeable. So we were pulled out one by one, really slowly, and replaced them with agents with full covers in place. I was the last one, but by that time, we were pretty sure Montange was watching the Crimson closely and we didn't want to scare him off, so I had to improvise. Nick used to work for Anderson when she was the Commissioner and she trusted him, so she brought him in on things to give me a little extra back up."

"Was that what I was? Improvisation?"

"No." She suddenly looked a little uncertain. "I don't know what it was at first. I was violating all kinds of rules. I told everyone it was just 'color.' I told them I was just trying to improve my cover, but it didn't have anything to do with that, except at first."

"So, what was it?"

"It started off as kind of a cover thing, something that Party Girl would do. I needed be seen flirting with somebody, but I didn't want the hassle of actually dealing with some guy who was taking it seriously. So I started flirting with the one guy I knew wouldn't be an asshole about it."

"I was safe."

She gave an off-kilter smile. "Yeah, but it turned out that I wasn't. You were so cool about it for so long. Over time I started looking forward to seeing you. And it kept going from there. It was only when the guy tried to spike you that I realized how far gone I was. I tried to talk myself out of going over, but you know how that worked out."

I needed a bit of time to think about that, so I changed the subject.

"So what was that stuff with the ASP batons? I've never seen anything like that."

"Escrima. I've been studying it since... since before I can remember. My Dad taught it to me."

"I've never seen anyone beat somebody so badly, so quickly. Except once. You're the one that got to Joey D and his friends."

She nodded, looking down at her hands. "You were too obvious, too angry. You'd have killed them, and everyone would have known. Abby was really worried about you." She looked up at me sadly. "I couldn't let you ruin your life."

"Abby?"

"I went and saw her when she was in the hospital. I really wanted to see if I was going to have any competition with you, but from the way she talked she thought of you a big brother. I told her I'd keep you from doing anything stupid if she promised to see the counselor. She has no idea I'm your girlfriend, she just thinks I was a cop assigned to the case."

"Cassie ran interference that night."

"We saw the first two slip into the loading dock door. So she gave me time circle around to the loading dock. I got the jump on them, then caught Joey as he came through the door."

That was flat out felony assault. But it didn't bother me; she was right. They were lucky she had done it. I'd have probably killed all three of them. I might have been able to get out of it by claiming I was protecting the girl, but too many people knew about Abby, it'd have been a huge risk.

"Anything else I should know about?"

"Other than constantly lying to you about almost everything?" She stopped, then gave a kind of goofy smile. "I did use your toothbrush the first morning I stayed over, but I rinsed it in really hot water."

"I was wondering when you'd own up to that. The toothbrush was still wet when I got up."

"Sorry."

I reached over and took her hand. "Danni, I really need to know if this stuff between us is real."

She nodded, eyes a little glassy. "I tried not to take it seriously, but..." She drew in a deep breath, "I couldn't stop it."

"Well that's good. For me anyway. I'd hate to think I made a really expensive mistake."

She watched frozen as I pulled the box out of my pocket and opened it.

"Derek... I... I..."

For a moment I was convinced she was going to say "No," but, almost as if it was against her will, she reached slowly over, holding her left hand out.

"Are you sure Derek? I'm a mess. My job is insane. I've lied to you the whole time we knew each other."

"I'm sure."

She closed her eyes for a second. "Then, Yes."

I slid the ring onto her finger and we held onto each other for what seemed like hours. She still seemed a little uncertain about something, but whatever it was, I was sure it wasn't about how she felt about me.

When we walked out, we ran right into Cassie who was apparently waiting on pins and needles. I think it's a female thing; we'd only cleared the conference room by two steps before she saw the ring on Danni's hand and let out a definitely happy shriek.

A tidal wave of women immediately poured out of cubicles and offices; Danni tried to introduce everyone, but I recognized that I was basically unnecessary to the ensuing chaos, probably even a hindrance.

I caught her for a second. "See you tonight?"

She nodded with an absolutely genuine smile, the surge of enthusiasm from the other women seemed to have erase whatever it was that was bothering her.

I managed to get a bemused male employee to escort me out of the building.

When Danni showed up that evening, she brought a large suitcase and stole half my closet. Apparently in our modern world, that's part of the engagement thing -- an expensive ring and closet space.

We called my mom and her parents; her mom initially seemed just a touch less enthusiastic than my mom, but she recovered quickly, so it might have just been surprise.

###

Despite Danni having a few months left on her lease, she essentially moved into my apartment, although the cost of parking spaces meant she kept her car parked at her place and either used a cab or had me pick her up.

We were both nearing the end of our programs, so time together was precious -- Danni had managed her classes so that she had only one class her last semester, but she was still working part time with the State OSI. I was pretty much finished at the Crimson, by the time I would be healed enough to go back on duty there, I'd be closing on the Bar exam.

We were still trying to figure out the details of when to get married. I actually got to talk to her mom on the phone a few times, and she seemed to be accepting the idea. My own mom was thrilled, especially once she learned Danni actually knew the traditional Hawaiian Hula. The two of them spent way too much time discussing my childhood misadventures.

We tried to figure out a good time to fly out so I could meet her parents, but her schedule kept getting in the way. It was all pretty distracting.

So I was only half tracking the progress of the crushing wheels of justice as they rolled inexorably over Tony Montana and his goons. Until they hit a bump in the personage of Judge Rosalind Parker.

In the initial hearing, Anthony Montangne and his men were not granted bail, but through legal maneuverings that I deplored, but took note of, they managed to get a second hearing with Judge Parker, who suddenly reversed her initial decision and granted hefty bail amounts, but they were well within his capability to cover.

Less than 24 hours later, Danni's apartment was firebombed.

I woke up at 3AM to the sound of pounding on the apartment door, the word "Police" was being shouted at the door. I grabbed my lavalava and checked through the peephole and saw Cassie with a squad of city police. Two of the cops were lining up with a battering ram.

I hoped I would be loud enough for them to hear. "Wait, I'm opening the door!"

As soon as I yanked the door open, Cassie and her horde of police poured in. I held my hands up as they rushed past me, barely even glancing in my direction.

Tight faced and terrified, Cassie grabbed my arm, nails biting in sharply. "Tell me Danni's here!"

Before I could answer, Danni called from the doorway to the bedroom. "I'm here." She'd apparently stopped to put on the sarong she'd claimed. As she stepped out, I could see she'd also grabbed her automatic.

Cassie let go of me gave Danni a huge hug. "Thank God. When I got the call about what happened, I headed right over here."

"What are you talking about?"

"They hit your apartment -- it's completely burned out. I was praying you were staying here, because they're still trying to put the fire out."

I caught Danni's eye. "I think Tony is taking everything personally. Everything."

After seeing Danni's attack on his men, he must have figured out what happened to Joey D.

"Shit. Shit. Shit." Danni plopped into a chair. "Maybe I need to leave. I don't need to bring them here."

"No. You're a lot safer here -- the building is a lot more secure than your old place."

Cassie called back to headquarters to let them know Danni was okay. "The Director convinced the city police to put a couple guys on this building, at least for now."

We sat and commiserated about Danni's now permanent move-in while Cassie made arrangements for security. Danni took it a lot better than I expected. To her, the only real loss was her pictures and those could be replaced.

Cassie finished and sat down with us. "Nice skirt, Derek."

I shook my head but didn't say anything. Danni rolled her eyes. "Crap, I should've had you change into jeans, now Cassie might be interested in you."

Cassie flushed bright red. "I was trying to stay in character."

Danni leaned toward her, wrinkling her nose. "Three-drink-bisexual is a cover?" She looked over at me. "She gets a little handsy after a few shots."

I thought Cassie was going to flee the room until Danni reached over and smacked her lightly on the knee. "Relax, I know you weren't serious."

Cassie gave a tiny appreciative smile at being let off the hook. "Let me check on the guys, then we can figure out what to do from here. Probably need to go to the office and see what the options are."

As soon as she left, we went to change; it was obvious there'd be no more sleep.

Danni giggled as she pulled on clothes. "Just between us, dancing with Cassie after a few drinks is like wrestling an octopus. That's no act."

"Well, I'm glad you chose me over her."

She gave a teasing, pretend-thoughtful look. "It was a close call, but the tattoos tipped the scale."

"Then they were totally worth it."

Danni looked very pleased with that. "Just keep the Cassie thing to yourself. I think she's one of those 'seventy-percent straight' girls."

"Six jello shots and she'd do it, but she'd hate herself in the morning?" I'd seen more than few women start making out with another woman at the club to get attention from guys, then forget they were doing it for an audience.

"Yeah. She might be able to deal with it someday, but not right now. Besides, I saw how she looked you over; seeing you without a shirt might have tipped her to eighty percent straight."

We ended up at the State OSI office almost half the day, while they tried to figure out what to do. Most of Tony Montana's guys seemed to be staying at the Mark Social Club. It used to be a small hotel, but Tony had it reworked into a small club with a couple top-floor apartments and a conference room. Knowing how interesting he was to law enforcement, he kept live security on it all the time, making it almost impossible to plant recording devices. They slapped surveillance on the site. The two cars of uniformed police were there as much to let him know they were watching him as to actually watch him. They were hoping it would put the brakes on his activity.

Danni called her mom and told her she was safe with me. We had set up another time for us to drive out to her house so I could meet her parents, but it looked like another delay was going to occur. I managed to say "hi" to her Mom, but had to get moving to class.

Danni and I set up schedules and times to check on each other. I wasn't too worried about her while she was at work, but school and home were a different story.

Four weeks of wariness later, our problems simply evaporated.

###

Cassie called this time at 3AM again.

"Let me talk to Danni."

I rolled over and smacked Danni's bare butt. I knew she was awake, but she hadn't moved, hoping it didn't have anything to do with her. Sometimes my mom called; she never quite got the whole time zone thing down.

"Hey, Babe, it's Cassie."

I tried to relax, but it didn't last long as Danni sat up abruptly.

I couldn't hear Cassie, and Danni wasn't doing much talking. After she hung up, she was silent for a while.

She looked oddly haunted. "Tony Montana is dead."

"Really?"

"Some kind of gang hit at the Mark. A bunch of guys were killed. Everyone at the club. At least ten. Cassie says they don't know how the guys got in. The patrol men on surveillance duty will be suspended pending an investigation."

Danni seemed more bothered by it than I'd have expected. I was in no way upset at the demise of the late unlamented Tony Montana.

Needless to say, the newspaper headlines were blazing for days. "Massacre at the Mark", "Fourteen Killed in Gangland Hit" were a couple of the milder ones.

The investigation team actually checked me and Danni out -- with the cameras on the building and the police out front, our alibis were pretty good.

I asked Kelly to keep me up on anything related to the hit, just so there wouldn't be any surprises. She kept needling me about when I was getting hitched.

Danni seemed "off" after the hit on the Mark. I didn't have any doubt about her commitment to me, but I couldn't even get her to talk about figuring out a basic time frame for the wedding. And when I joked about just running off to Vegas and getting hitched I thought she was going to have a panic attack.